Reaching Out To You
by Final Hikari
Summary: Five years after what transpired at Nox Obscurus, Lymle is appointed the Oracle of Alanaire. She and Faize depart for the Citadel together, though a violent storm passes through on their first night there. -Birthday Present for Iniphineas-


Birthday present for Iniphineas!

Final Hikari: Late, as usual…T.T But better late than never!

Faize: Philosophies such as that one encourage procrastination.

Final Hikari: I learned it from my younger sister/editor. Anyway! I'm sorry I took so long on this; I had one idea before this one, but it was too awkward, difficult, and unoriginal. I didn't condemn it until after 2,000 words though. XD I wanted it to be completely stand alone, without any affiliation to the piles of post-ending scene ideas I have for _Utopia._ I was drawing a blank, so I decided to look past my novel's timeline.

Lymle: …That sounds kinda ominous, 'kay?

Final Hikari: Then I started writing around 10 PM when a storm started going through, and my sleep deprived imagination did the rest!

Faize: -blank stare- I'm starting to sympathize with your readers, there is no consistency in how or when you write…

Final Hikari: Ya, they're doomed to suffer my slowness. XD Anyway, before you start reading, keep in mind Lymle is 20 and Faize 23 in this one. Set five years after the ending of TLH! For the sake of believable fluff and my fleeting sanity. -turns to characters- Now disclaim yourselves. XD

Faize: The Final Hikari doesn't own anything from Star Ocean: The Last Hope…

Final Hikari: And for the record, I don't own the title either! Comes from "How Do I Get Close?" by The Kinks again. -sweat drop- And, without further ado, the oneshot! Hope you enjoy reading, Iniphineas!

Reaching Out To You

Lymle Lemuri Phi passed through the wooden guard walls and high arch marking Triom's side entrance, a small flower in her hand. The once sturdy walls had become worn and crumbling in some areas; over five years of neglect had left them to degrade, like almost everything in the town. Animals had taken up residence within the houses, destroying the barren insides. Any furniture or possessions people had been forced to leave behind were long ago defaced.

_He's going to be late again…_ she thought, a bit dryly, though he wasn't entirely to blame; the Eldarian settlements were statistically in a different "time zone", though the concept of the term still sounded rather odd. _Though…Asgard is a lot farther from Triom than Woodley is. I suppose I'll just wait…_

After five brutal winters, dumping numerous feet of snow upon the small village, many of the roofs had caved in. The collapsed roofs left the wooden frames at the complete mercy of nature; a few were so rickety, they looked as though they could collapse in a good storm. Others had buckled, warped, or fallen walls.

The first house by the main entrance seemed to be in the worst condition. Only one wall remained standing and the debris from the rest of the structure blocked the road. The foundation was lopsided and the once sturdy pilings split. Though a saddening sight, it was also an unsurprising one.

The garden's patches of dirt used to grow vegetables were all overgrown, full of weeds that choked the life out of the once carefully planted and arranged rows of vegetables. She remembered helping some of the villagers as a child with the vegetable patches in early spring, when most of the things had to be planted…it was a distant memory, but a pleasant one.

The same weeds once limited to the sides of the roads had also began to grow in the roads themselves. A stray cat living in the building that had once been the general store peered out from behind the door when it heard the gentle footsteps of a visitor. The villagers who had once lived in Triom and moved to Woodley didn't look back; she doubted many of them ever bothered to revisit their lost homes.

Not that there was really a reason to; the only thickly populated area of the town was the graveyard.

She stopped when she reached the crossroads in the path. Her gaze strayed to her grandfather's house, expression distant. Triom wasn't the only town to be abandoned due to losing so many of its citizens to bacculus; in fact, she and her parents had originally lived in a town yet further south, until a particularly deadly strain of the disease claimed the lives of three quarters of the population.

She hadn't liked Triom when she first arrived, though it was on less than welcoming pretenses. Her grandfather was always kind and thoughtful, but the townspeople had always looked at her strangely since she was different. She'd always kept Cerberus at her side before leaving Lemuris; it had been an unusual change to be constantly pestered _not_ to summon him. Nevertheless, the citizens of Triom always treated her as an outsider, though they were never blatantly rude or unwelcoming, seeing as her grandfather was the village's Elder.

Expression somewhat forlorn, she turned down the right side of the path. She walked over to the largest house in the village, inwardly noticing it had undergone the least change. She didn't know who had taken the time to close everything up after Triom was abandoned. Perhaps one of the villagers or Lutea, but everything had been secured and locked to lessen the ill effects of weather and prevent animals from moving in. It was also nestled in the center of the town, protected by the other buildings.

She walked up the small stairway and ran her fingers down the rusted doorknob. She reached into her pocket and removed a heavy metal key. She slipped it into the lock, struggling to make the old gears within move. She was too preoccupied trying to force the lock open to realize a pair of violet eyes at the distance entrance had settled on her.

Finally, the lock opened. She removed the key and pushed on the door. As expected, it gave some resistance before swinging open. She didn't bother opening the other side; there would have been no reason. She stepped inside, blinking a few times before her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. At first she could only discern the shapes of things, but enough light filtered in from the dusty, dirty windows to see by.

Although, they could have been completely opaque and she still would have been able to navigate through the single story house; she was familiar with the layout of all the furniture and the locations of the doors leading into the other rooms. She stared at the dark fireplace and closed her eyes, trying to recall all the details of one of the last times she ever entered the house and expected to find someone inside.

It had turned out to be a fateful encounter, in ways she never would have been able to predict nor forget, even over five years later. The air inside was stagnant, but it didn't bother her. Her memories of them - especially _him_ - were not forever changing, just like the interior of the place she once called home. It felt like a lifetime ago that she had been living in Triom, and just as long since her days aboard the Calnus with its lively crew.

They were almost all separated; save Edge and Reimi, who had returned to Earth together. She doubted they would ever part ways, no matter what transpired. Arumat had been on Lemuris as well for a brief while before departing from the ever growing Eldarian settlements in the southeast. Though they had held to the promise of abandoning all their technology, the sheer population of the emigrants permitted their cities to be more comparable to the sizes of the ones on Roak, rather than the ones created by Lemurisians.

Not that there was much of a difference between the two races.

The overturned wheelchair had been righted years before and sat in front of the large, unused fireplace. The cobwebs around the high ceiling were larger than ever; she remembered watching as the spiders wove them, but always casting the mildest and smallest Fire Bolt symbol useable to incinerate any unlucky insect that lowered itself close to her. It was an odd memory, but a clear one; her grandfather's house had always been shared with spiders.

Leaving the door open for light, she walked over to the bedroom, expression wistful. She felt guilty about it, but she longed to walk through the Calnus' corridors far more. At first she had thought the ship was cold and unfeeling in design, but even in a child's frame of mind, she'd quickly realized the personalities of the crew were anything but.

At least, for the most part; she'd suspected otherwise of one particular crew member, but that was a long time ago. She looked around the bedroom that had once been hers and sat down on the edge of the bed, careful not to stir up too much dust. It'd only succeed in making her sneeze, most likely several times. The pink sheets were covered in a thick layer of dust, but were still smooth and folded perfectly atop the mattress. The various paintings, tubes of dried out paint, and other miscellaneous trinkets around the room were also undisturbed, though hidden by the dust and grime of time.

A few doodles on the walls themselves had also lost the paint's original brightness. As a child, she'd always been questioned or scolded for drawing on the walls; though there was always a reason behind each symbol, she'd been to naïve to think the location of the drawings would bother people. It _was_ a bad habit outgrown by the age of seven at the latest, after all.

Involuntarily, her thoughts returned to the Calnus' final flight and the battles that occurred after it; though the past was gone and they were together again, the dark memories were unforgettable. Nox Obscurus, the dark star which featured perpetual, indistinct night and the Palace of Creation, where time did not pass, were two locations that would never recede from her mind. The crashing thunder that sent vibrations throughout the land, lightning that illuminated nothing but endless night, and icy acid rain that stung the skin it came in contact with were some of the many unpleasant trademarks of the land at world's end.

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by two things; the first was the creak of the floorboards in the living room, meaning someone else had entered the small house. She heard him call out her name questioningly, but noticed it only distantly. The second, in a disorientingly anti-climatic manner, was a rather large spider at least five inches in diameter lowering itself barely an inch from her nose.

Her eyes widened and she involuntary clutched the sheet in her hand, estimating it to be close to seven inches wide with its hairy legs accounted for. Though not a victim of arachnophobia, the sheer size of the spider as it stretched one of its legs toward her face was enough to make her jerk away from it. Not used to the setup of having a bed in the middle of the room, she expected to hit the wall, but instead gracelessly tumbled off the opposite of the bed and hit the floor, the old sheet coming with her and creating a cloud of dust. There was only about a foot of space between the wall and the bed, making the position quite uncomfortable.

She sneezed and coughed, struggling to breathe in the cloud of dust. She opened her eyes attentively, scanning the area for the creature. The sheet had succeeded in getting tangled around her legs. The spider that had hung precariously by one single thread of its web had apparently caught hold of the sheet as it flew into the air, for it rested atop the material on her knee.

"Lymle? What's wrong?" the familiar voice questioned a second time, tone more urgent as he hurried into the room to see what the commotion was.

She grabbed the edge of the sheet and hurtled it - spider and all - across the room. It landed by the doorway in a pile, the resilient insect ending up on top. It struggled to right itself as she sneezed a second time. The door creaked open a second time and Faize Sheifa Beleth entered, hand on his rapier, apparently expecting some sort of adversary. He glanced around the room, taking in the scene in all of three seconds, before looking down to the spider scuttling madly toward the exit.

"All that commotion for a spider…?" His hand dropped from the hilt of his weapon, expression remaining indifferent. The insect sped up as it went to pass him, but it met the untimely demise from a heavy boot before it had the chance to escape. She watched as its remains twitched once, inwardly thinking it had probably lived in her room longer than she had, if its size was a testament to anything.

"I-it tried to land on my head!" Lymle retorted, somewhat defensively.

"Are you alright?" he asked, sound slightly amused, as he extended a hand to help her up.

She blushed slightly, not pleased to have had such an inelegant moment witnessed by _anyone_. "You're late, 'kay?" she stated as she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

"Actually, if you measure time by a proper clock synchronized with the planet's rotation instead of the sun's apparent position in the sky, which changes dramatically in the various seasons, I was thirty seconds early."

"Uh-huh," she said dismissively, dusting her clothes off. "Shall we go? Today's supposed to the official first."

"Yes, it's already a bit later than when we intended to depart," he said with a nod. "As long as there aren't any spiders in Alanaire, I'm sure you'll-"he added jokingly.

"Shaddup," she interjected brusquely, starting toward the door, careful to step around what remained of the spider.

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Lymle Lemuri Phi shuddered and sat up abruptly as the hellacious crash of thunder echoed throughout the cavernous halls and chambers of Alanaire Citadel. The walls were completely opaque and there weren't any unsealed windows in the room to permit the lightning that was undoubtedly illuminating the sky outside from flashing inside her room. She straightened and looked around, expression still slightly ill at ease from the less than calming pretenses that she awoke to.

It was the middle of the summer, causing what normally would have been a bad snow storm or blizzard to become a thunder storm. They only transpired a few months of the year on Lemuris. They had been more frequent in Triom, but the further north one got, the less change occurred during the seasons. It was just barely warm enough outside the imposing building's walls to support raindrops instead of snowflakes.

The room and corridors beyond were dark; only one torch mounted in a rusted metal bracket of the far wall lit the room. There were others in the halls, but as the Citadel was usually left to the guardian beasts within. The lights were lit by the Oracle's symbology - when temporarily serving as Oracle, her childhood friend Lutea had enchanted them to automatically extinguish themselves at night.

It was close to the old clock on the wall, giving off just enough light to discern the time shown by the old metal hands. She squinted slightly in the dim light to see where the minute hand remained. _It's already past midnight…I'm not going to get any sleep tonight if this keeps up…_

She shook her head at her own foolishness and pushed the heavy blanket aside. She waved her hand over a candle on the nightstand beside her bed and with a flash of symbological light, the wick ignited. She tied her long hair back in a single ponytail before slipping her feet into a pair of worn boots and walking across the room to where the Oracle's Staff hung on the wall.

The post of Oracle was vital to Lemurisian culture; a master of the symbological arts had to be on call at all times to attend to and resolve any and every matter that the mythical science could affect. There was always supposed to be an Oracle and someone to take care of the historic Alanaire Citadel; the previous Oracle's death, although overshadowed by more pressing matters and dilemmas, had unquestionably been a tragedy.

As the new Oracle, she had the spacious room all to herself. In addition to the bed and nightstand, there was a desk and chair away from the window. A heavy wooden wardrobe had been placed near the door, though she had little time to transfer all her clothes into it. The scent of freshly cut oak emanated from the closet, an aroma she didn't particularly like the idea of having sink into her clothes, either way.

According to Lemurisian tradition, a symbologist couldn't formally take the position of Oracle until they reached a specific age and were able to best the current - or acting - Oracle in mastery of symbology. She had to wait until the twentieth day of the sixth annual lunar cycle (or month, as off-worlders called it) to formally be appointed the position. Thus, her twentieth birthday had been a serious day more than a happy one.

Nearly a fortnight later, after a very unhurried move into the citadel's living quarters, she was spending her first night there. Though not alone, the person in the next room over was a perplexingly heavy sleeper. There were five rooms in the citadel; two in the higher floors for the Oracle and any companion they brought along with three closer to the ground floor for travelers.

As Lemuris had returned to its peaceful state before the Cardianon invasion, the guardian beasts within had all been dismissed or exterminated. Most had been negatively impacted by the presence of hostile mutated Cardianon and turned against their true duty, to protect the Citadel from invasion, upon the last Oracle's death. Only a few travelers, mainly Eldarians or Ruddle, who had ended up on Lemuris under pretences in which even he did not remember nor could any of those who helped him back on Roak comprehend, ever visited the Citadel.

It was a complete mystery how the scatterbrained man ended up on Lemuris. He'd been there when she returned in early S.D. 11, somehow getting onboard a ship or getting wrapped up in some sort of transfer symbol. There was also the possibility whoever had the misfortune of dealing with him regularly had hired some symbologists to send him off as far as the science could move him, which despite the senselessness of it seemed like the most likely possibility.

However, seeing as the man hadn't even been able to realize he was holding a simple map upside down when he repeatedly got lost, it was impossible to truly know what brought him to the Eldarians' utopia.

The only non-human guardian of the Citadel was Cerberus. He patrolled the entrances on the ground floor at all times, almost never leaving his post and returning to the Demon Realm. He was more than enough protection against unwanted visitors. It wasn't as though the two human - or at least humanoid - occupants of the structure weren't adept symbologists, either.

She reached out and lifted the Oracle's Staff off its rack on the wall. The golden circles around the weapon's head jingled softly as she moved it. As they had been all but unused since the appearance of the Cardianon upon the planet, the rooms were quite neglected. Thick layers of dust had coated almost everything and much of the furniture needed to be replaced, since it had been destroyed by the monsters that had free prowl of the fortress. Even with the additions, the rooms were anything but welcoming.

A few unpacked suitcases remained in an orderly line - obviously not her doing, for they could just as easily have been tucked in random places around the room - by the door, where they had been placed the day before. As she wasn't the one who carried the rather heavy packages up numerous flights the stairs, there was little reason to object to his stubborn perfectionism. _Even if it's completely pointless…_

She started toward the door, flinching only slight when another crack of thunder echoed down the halls. She pushed the door open and closed it carefully. The lock closed with a soft click, almost indiscernible over the soft pattering of the rain on the exterior walls. There were windows with thick, glass panes on either side of the hallway, allowing the light given off by the daggers of lightning to flash brightly.

_I have absolutely no reason to dislike thunder, _she reminded herself with a curt nod. As a child, it never bothered her - it was only after spending so much time on Nox Obscurus back in late S.D. 10, where the cold rain, dark clouds, ominous lightning, and seemingly never-ending crashes of thunder had continued infinitely that it began to bother her. They had felt like an omniscient part of the foreboding wasteland.

_It's childish…I'm the Oracle now, I can't hold on to such silly fears._

She had a decreasing amount of reasons to dwell on the unpleasant memories. She walked down the hallway to the other old, worn door. Her footsteps were silent and she carried her staff carefully so the golden rings didn't clink together. She stopped in front of the second door and reached for the knob, hesitating momentarily before opening it to peer inside. If the continuous thunder hadn't woken him up, there was almost no way the soft creak of a door would.

The door was unlocked, as expected. She didn't open it more than an inch, only enough to glance inside. His room was equally plain, though anything and everything that could be neatly organized was. Whether it was small, electronic devices that had no business existing on the underdeveloped planet or a collection of rapiers, it was in orderly stacks or rows categorized by some stubborn standard.

His eyes were closed and half concealed by his light green bangs. Despite being asleep, his expression remained looking slightly calculating. It was an odd trait she remembered consistently antagonizing him for several years prior. She smiled slightly, feeling slightly less bothered by the violet, tumultuous weather outside. It wasn't as though she was alone; they had already decided to stay together, after all…

Deciding not to dwell, she closed the door with equal care and started toward the staircase on the right side of the hallway. She hastened her pace slightly once she turned up the spiral staircase, not worrying about the soles of her boots clicking against the stone steps. The torches lit gradually, the fires igniting only when she approached them. They were just close enough to allow her to see the stairs ahead of her. She paid little attention to the fact they likewise extinguished themselves as she continued to ascend the lengthy staircase; it was something she'd gotten used to.

The rain beating against the citadel's outermost walls intensified in force and speed, a sure sign the storm was almost directly above them. It was probably moving northward; most of it would dissipate by the time the dark clouds would reach Woodley. A rumbling roar of thunder sounded high above, sending the slightest of vibrations throughout the old stone building. She flinched momentarily despite herself, silently hoping it didn't stall upon reaching Lake Aegis.

She turned down a small, somewhat out of the way corridor and walked down the familiar halls with a slightly distant look. She reached the double stone doors that divided the corridor from the balcony and extended the top of the long golden staff. Upon contact with the cold stone, the doors lurched open. They scraped against the floor and arched frame, reflecting how seldom they were opened. She stepped out onto the balcony before they were completely open, eyes settling on the distant guard wall around Woodley.

The air outside was unseasonably cold; the rain fell heedlessly, but it felt as though if the temperature dropped a little more, the solidification process would easily begin. The wind blew from the opposite direction and whistled as it passed through and around the citadel. The overhand above the spacious balcony was tilted at the perfect angle to prevent the rain from dampening so much as the hand rail.

She walked toward the edge to get a clearer look at the distant town, the slight breeze that found itself around the side walls causing a stray stand of hair to blow in front of her eyes. She tucked it behind her ear as she leaned against the thick stone rail, resting her free hand against the rail's cold, smooth surface.

The expansive view of the Van Elm Region was always an impressive one, though it was rare to see it without a blanket of snow covering the valley. The grassy fields were submerged in a few inches of water in some areas, especially those close to the lake, but the village itself was built on the highest part of the land, right beside the mountain's steep slope. It almost never flooded; rain was such an unusual problem in the north, it was seldom given consideration.

She looked up at the dark storm clouds, thinking of how different the night sky even as it appeared on Lemuris' clearest night was in comparison to the seemingly neverending expansiveness of space that stretched on infinitely outside the Calnus' windows. It felt far longer than five years since she'd last gazed out of them. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, but did little more than give a clearer view of the clouds that hid the starry ocean.

The low rumble of thunder ensued, hiding the sound of the stone doors behind her once again opening. Her gaze had fallen back to Woodley; the town was always expanding, as the population never ceased to grow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It's rather late to be wandering around," Faize remarked as he walked through the doorway.

She glanced up and turned around, slightly surprised she hadn't heard him following her. "Did I wake you up before?"

"The storms' echoes are loud here in Alanaire," he replied, not answering the question as he walked over to her. "According to the texts I read, this region was actually one of the first subdued and colonized by Eldarians, over a thousand years ago. Apparently, the on ships crash landed in this region; one directly into the lake, another several miles south of Calnus' original landing point, and a third beyond where the remains of the Cardianon ship are."

She listened patiently, although not nearly as intrigued in the origins of the various buildings such as Alanaire Citadel that were spread out around the continent that were clearly constructed by a level of civilization far above what the Lemurisians possessed. "There used to be some ruins in that region, I remember when Grandpa told me about them. Were they built by the same organization?"

"Most likely, though probably after the ships were destroyed and the decision to seal the truth about the Lemurisians' origins was made. The original reason Alanaire was constructed was for the symbologists and researchers who stayed behind when the other members of the exploration division spread out across the rest of the continent. It's likely the original founders of the small villages in this region are descendents of those symbologists, since the settlements farther away from Alanaire don't have as many symbologists."

"That's partly while Lutie's family moved to Woodley," Lymle added, "to be closer to the Oracle, since Lutie was considered to be one of her potential successors. Though…none of this was really supposed to happen so soon."

Faize turned to look at Lymle as she stared ahead, expression unreadable. Absently, he noted how much she had grown from the eerie child he used to know; her hair had grown into long, soft locks of chocolate that hung around her shoulders, her face had developed from childish roundness into the gentle angles of near-adulthood, and she was taller and more mature than ever. The only thing about her that seemed to remain the same was her eyes; still clear, soft sepia eyes, though shadowed now by the events of the passing years.

"You sound as though you have regrets," he observed, tone blank.

"I-I suppose I have some," she replied, caught off guard by the question.

He'd had numerous reasons for returning to Lemuris three years prior; though she'd had never come out and asked him directly, he suspected she knew from the beginning it wasn't solely for her.

"But…," she paused, looking up to meet his eyes momentarily, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. "It's alright…since you're here."

She looked away quickly after finishing the sentence, leaving a somewhat uncomfortable silence hanging over them. She seemed to be waiting for a reply, though he offered none. The storm seemed to be intensifying, for the speed at which the rain fell increased. A flash of lightning illuminated the sky, making contact with something in the distance, and remained visible for several seconds before disappearing.

He didn't move for a long moment, feeling vaguely guilty. Though as illogical as it was, he wasn't entirely sure for what.

He was snapped from the inconvenient thoughts by the sound of her lilting voice.

"Faize?" Lymle questioned, her gaze now on him. He felt electrified for a brief moment before making a quick, thoughtless decision.

"Faize, what-" she trailed off as his hands landed on the sensitive skin of her neck. He hesitated momentarily as her eyes widened in surprise. The deafening crash of thunder that followed the lightning bellowed across the hills. The sound was twice as loud when outside the citadel's protective stone walls and sent a slight tremor through the ground.

She flinched unintentionally and took a step closer to him, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as the Oracle's Staff slipped from her fingers and fell to the stone floor with a clatter. The sound of the thunder faded with a final ominous rumble as he reached out, wrapping his arm around her waist and gently pulling her closer.

The wind whistled through the citadel's towers and ramparts with renewed ferocity. He paused a second time, hesitating before taking the moment any further. Deciding on a whim to dismiss the thought, his fingers slid up the side of her neck to under her chin. He tilted her head so she looked up at him, though her eyes were still wide. She leaned away from him, about to step back.

His eyes closed as he leaned down to kiss her.

She gave a small gasp that nearly sucked all of the oxygen away from him, then pushed herself onto her tiptoes, grasping his wrists for support. The two stood, afraid to break the moment, until Faize slowly raised his head to look at her, anxious of her reaction.

He only caught a glimpse of her face, bright red, before she looked away. She rested her head against his shoulder as he pulled her back into an embrace. Her heart was pounding as she looked up at him, expression looking almost flustered.

"Faize, if you did that as a- as a joke, I-I'll feed you to Cerberus," she said in a trembling voice, though with happiness or fury he did not know.

He blinked, having not expected such a simple response. Mutely, he shook his head, inwardly thinking it _was_ the sort of random, rather distracting talk she was known for. However, he was surprised again when she placed a small kiss on his cheek. Shyly, she ducked her head back down when he gave her an amazed stare.

She spoke into his chest, voice muffled by his clothes. "But…I think… I think Cerberus will have to wait."

A small smile came over his expression at her response. "Well," he murmured, clearing his throat, "that's good. I would probably give him indigestion anyway."

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Final Hikari: …That ended up longer than I expected. XD Ah well, at least that justifies the delay! I hope… Also, thanks go to **Dr. Meh** for helping with the ending scene. -sweat drop- I really wanted to write the entire thing myself, but after a few days of bang-head-against-wall writer's block, I gave in. XD I write angst or angsty romance, sweet cotton fields are hard. XD Finally, 'Asgard,' though not official, is my name for the main Eldarian settlement on Lemuris. Why? Because I play too much Valkyrie profile and I can. XD

Lymle: …Those aren't very good reasons.

Final Hikari: I'm extracting cotton balls out of my USB ports after writing all that! XD I have justified inattentiveness for a change. I will note that despite writing the entire oneshot in Lymle's point of view, I wrote it in the long, overly-eloquent style I usually reserve for fiction, poetry, or Faize's POV. Yay overabundance of formal terminology! XD

Faize: …'Hellacious' isn't a formal word.

Final Hikari: -stare- It isn't? But it sounds so long and official. XD

Faize: -points at dictionary- Anything but; it's classified as slang.

Final Hikari: …Well. Learn something everyday! XD Also, I'm not positive about this, but I'm pretty sure the lake near Woodley is called Aegis. The name sticks out in my head because I remember laughing and thinking of the einherjar with the same name in VP:2 and the mythological origin of the name. XD While on the topic of etymology, 'Faize' actually comes from the Arabic name 'Faiz,' which means victorious. It's even on Behind The Name. :D The meaning of the rest of his name though? Very creepy…

Lymle: -peers over shoulder to read definition on screen-

Final Hikari: -closes it abruptly- Anyway, on an closing note, pretty much all the dialogue after the kiss was from the Doctor. XD I don't know how in character it is, but I laughed too hard at the 'I'll feed you to Cerberus' bit and following comments to change them. XD I'd imagine all who read know it isn't quit my style to have the second to last word of a serious, romantic oneshot 'indigestion.' But nearly 6,000 words, grand total! -evil laugh- I'm pretty happy with that. XD


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